ANOTHER YEAR?

Happy Year of the Rabbit! Shanghai is finally getting settled back into normal life after a long holiday for Spring Festival (also called Chinese New Year).

And as schools and business start up again, I am faced with another decision: to extend or to not extend? When I first moved to Shanghai in the summer of last year, I was fully intending for this to be my final year of service here in Asia before returning to the U.S. in July 2011.

After a half-year in Shanghai, I am seriously considering the possibility of staying for one more year to help further the burgeoning work of CWEF here. As my financial and spiritual supporters, I highly value your thoughts in this matter. If you have any input regarding the extension or completion of my service here in Asia, please send me an email at jwalange@gmail.com and let me know what you think.

HK & SICHUAN

In January, I had the pleasure of meeting with my CWEF coworkers in Hong Kong for an organizational retreat. It was a very blessed time of getting to know each other better and to learn from each other, both professionally and spiritually.

Following our time in HK, I joined my coworker Sean Harlow for a trip to China’s Sichuan province. Sean is the manager of CWEF’s ongoing work in region devastated by the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

We spent several days in the small town of Nanba, which was hit especially hard by the earthquake. The town was flattened and many people lost their lives, including 170 primary school students when their school building collapsed. The town is still in the process of being rebuilt, and CWEF has worked on several projects in Nanba in the past three years, including clean water delivery systems in surrounding villages, and outfitting the middle school library with books, computers, and furniture.

MIGRANT SCHOOL HAPPENINGS

We are gearing up for another semester of English volunteers at the migrant school in Shanghai’s Jinshan district. We currently have five Saturdays scheduled when volunteers from various groups will visit the school and help supplement the students’ education through English lessons.

The Jinshan migrant school has also agreed to host a longer-term group from Shanghai’s Concordia International School in September, as a part of Concordia’s Interim program, in which everyone student in the high school takes a week off school to participate in a volunteer service, historical learning, or adventure trip.

In the coming months, we will also continue to seek out a second migrant school who we can partner with. Please remember this especially in your prayers, that He would lead us to the right school and that a strong relationship would be built there.

There is much to plan for and much to do in the coming months. Thank you as always for your support and please remember us in your prayers.